Pat Wyzbinski knew that running a non-profit was much more than simply raising money and doing good things.

She knew that managing non-profit groups well meant training and mentoring leaders and board members, handling finances and fundraising, and ensuring volunteers were organized efficiently.

While her name may not be well-known, she was a leading light in Milwaukee's thriving non-profit community.

"She had a profound influence on the non-profit sector," said Sarah Dean, retired executive director of the Faye McBeath Foundation.

Wyzbinski died Monday of cancer. She was 65.

"She was extraordinary. She was one of the most creative, imaginative people I knew and she knew more about non-profits than anyone I knew," said Dean, who helped recruit Wyzbinski to come to Milwaukee. "She was clever in that she helped train people in better practices in the non-profit sector and she recruited a lot of talent."

She was remembered as a dynamic, gracious, welcoming person who found the time to show up at events no matter how busy she was.

"She also possessed an intimidating balance of left and right brain capabilities. She had many ideas, they came quickly, were well considered, off the top of her head and very detailed," said Alicia Manning, program officer at the Bradley Foundation. "She had the creativity to envision a solution for any problem and the analytical ability to develop a plan and see that plan through. It was kind of stunning."

Wyzbinski grew up in Grosse Ile, Mich., and met her future husband, Scott Gelzer, at a party in 1972 at Michigan State University, where they both graduated that year — Wyzbinski with a degree in multidisciplinary social science and art history. While she was a student she was the administrator of one of the largest volunteer programs at Michigan State, overseeing hundreds of volunteers helping low-income residents of Lansing, Mich.

After college Gelzer and Wyzbinski were hired by a Chicago parish to develop a program for disadvantaged and homeless teenagers and ended up staying in Chicago for the next 25 years. In her first job she learned the importance of management for non-profit groups — how to appoint a board of directors, manage money and deliver support. In 1978 she started her own one-person firm as a non-profit consultant — something almost unheard of at the time —which she operated out of her apartment, and helped start a national organization to train non-profit leaders.

In 1994 Wyzbinski and Gelzer were hired to guide a fund set up through the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Helen Bader Foundation and Faye McBeath Foundation that provides grants to strengthen management of non-profit groups. Gelzer said they started seeing a pattern in grant applications with groups seeking help for difficulties with their boards of directors, technology and funding.

"Pat led a process that was really a creative explosion of projects, funding and resources for non-profits," her husband said. "The idea was that the fund would not house these things permanently but would seek ways to either embed them in the community or spin them off or take them to a logical conclusion."

Among the many organizations helped by the seed money over the years were Milwaukee Public Market, which used an early grant to help pay for research on the feasibility for the market, as well as the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, Gelzer said.

Little libraries honored son

When their son, Brandon, committed suicide several years ago, Wyzbinski and Gelzer started organizing annual community service projects in his memory. Among them was renovating a home, working with the Grand Avenue Club on a camping trip for members, establishing a tool lending program and building 29 Little Free Libraries throughout the Milwaukee area on what would have been his 29th birthday.

"It was a journey for us to honor our son. He was not a reader but he would have loved to have built them," Wyzbinski said. "That's why we were attracted to it — it brings the community together and encourages people to read."

The project "really helped catapult Little Free Libraries in Milwaukee. It's great because I see them everywhere now," Gelzer said. "Pat always had books in the back of her car. She'd jump out if she saw a library that was half full."

In the fall of 2014 Wyzbinski was diagnosed with cancer of the appendix. The couple hoped to attend the Kentucky Derby this year, something on her bucket list, but when she was not well enough to make the trip, they organized a Kentucky Derby party at their home with mint juleps, a betting window, trivia contest and large screen TV to watch the races. Everyone wore a hat.

"It's kind of a cliche when you say 'partners in life' but that's what we were. We played together, we loved together and we worked together," Gelzer said.

Wyzbinski was preceded in death by her parents, son and sister. She is survived by her husband and a sister.

A memorial service and celebration of Wyzbinski's life will be held in mid October.